THE Treaty Tree, AND FAIRMAN'S MANSION. [ILLUSTRATED BY A PLATE.]. "But thou, broad Elm! Canst thou tell us nought Thy foliage droop'd?-those who shadowed once THE site of this venerable tree is filled with local impressions. The tree itself, of great magnitude and great age, was of most impressive grandeur. Other cities of our Union have had their consecrated trees; and history abounds with those which spread in arborescent glory, and claimed their renown both from the pencil and the historic muse. Such have been "the royal oak," Shakspeare's "mulberry tree," &c. "From his touch-wood trunk the mulberry tree Supplied such relics as devotion holds Still sacred and preserves with pious care.” In their state of lofty and silent grandeur they impress a soothing influence on the soul, and lead out the meditative mind to enlargement of conception and thought. On such a spot, Penn, with appropriate accumen, selected his treaty ground. There long stood the stately witness of the solemn covenant-a lasting emblem of the unbroken faith, "pledged without an oath, and never broken!" Nothing could surpass the amenity of the whole scene as it once stood, before "improvement," that effacive name of every thing rural or picturesque, destroyed its former charms, cut down its sloping verdant bank, razed the tasteful Fairman mansion, and turned all into the levelled uniformity of a city street. Once remote from city bustle, and blest in its own silent shades amid many lofty trees, it looked out upon the distant city, "saw the stir of the great Babel, nor felt the crowd;" long therefore it was the favorite walk of the citizen. There he sought his scat and rest. Beneath the wide spread branches of the impending Elm gathered in summer whole congregations to hymn their anthems and to hearken to the preacher, beseeching them "in Christ's stead to be reconciled unto God." Those days are gone, "but sweet's their memory still!” Not to further dilate on the picture which the imagination fondly draws of scenes no longer there, we shall proceed to state such facts as the former history of the place affords, to wit: The fact of the treaty being held under the Elm, depends more upon the general tenor of tradition, than upon any direct facts now in our possession. When all men knew it to be so, they felt little occasion to lay up evidences for posterity. Least any should hereafter doubt it, the following corroborative facts are furnished, to wit: The late aged Judge Peters said he had no doubt of its being the place of the treaty. He and David H. Conyngham (still alive) had been familiar with the place from their youth as their swimming place, and both had always heard and always believed it designated the treaty ground. Judge Peters remarked too, that Benjamin Lay, the hermit, who came to this country in 1731, used to visit it and speak of it as the place of the treaty; of course he had his opinion from those who preceded him. Mr. Thomas Hopkins, who died lately at the age of 93, had lived there upwards of fifty years, and told me he never heard the subject questioned in his time. James Read, Esq. a nephew of James Logan's wife, who died in 1793, at the age of 71, (a great observer of passing events) used to say of West's painting of the treaty, that the English characters severally present were all intended to be resemblances, and were so far true, that he (Mr. Reed) could name them all. He fully believed the treaty was held at the Elm; and Mrs. Logan has heard him express his regret (in which others will join him) that Sir Benjamin West should have neglected truth so far as to have omitted the river scenery. Proud says, "the proprietary being now returned from Maryland to Coaquannock, the place so called by the Indians, where Philadelphia now stands, began to purchase lands of the natives. It was at this time (says he) when William Penn first entered personally into that lasting friendship with the Indians, [meaning the treaty, it is presumed,] which ever after continued between them." Clarkson, who had access to all the Penn papers in England, and who had possession of the blue sash of silk with which Penn was girt at the aforesaid famous treaty, gives the following facts, strongly coincident with the fact of the locality of the treaty tree,—saying, "It appears [meaning, I presume, it was in evidence, as he was too remote to be led to the inference by our traditions,] that though the parties were to assemble at Coaquannock, the treaty was made a little higher up at Shackamaxon." We can readily assign a good reason for the change of place; the latter had a kind of village near there of Friends, and it had been besides the residence of Indians, and probably had some remains of their families still there. Sir Benjamin West, who lived here sufficiently early to have heard the direct traditions in favour of the treaty, has left us his deep sense of that historical fact by giving it the best efforts of his pencil, and has therein drawn the portrait of his grandfather as one of the group of Friends attendant on Penn in that early national act. His picture, indeed, has given no appearance of that tree, but this is of no weight; as painters, like poets, are indulged to make their own drapery and effect. Nothing can be said against the absence of the tree, which may not be equally urged against the character and position of the range of houses in his back ground, which were certainly never exactly found either at Shackamaxon, Coaquannock, or Upland. But we may rest assured that Sir Benjamin, although he did not use the image of the treaty tree as any part of his picture, he nevertheless regarded it as the true locality; because he has left a fact from his own pen to countenance it. This he did in relating what he learnt from colonel Simcoe respecting his protection of that tree, during the time of the stay of the British army at and near Philadelphia. It shows so much generous and good feeling from all the parties concerned, that Sir Benjamin's words may be worthy of preservation in this connexion, to wit: "This tree, which was held in the highest veneration by the original inhabitants of my native country, by the first settlers, and by their descendants, and to which I well remember, about the year 1755, when a boy, often resorting with my schoolfellows, was in some danger during the American war, when the British possessed the country, from parties sent out in search of wood for firing; but the late General Simcoe, who had the command of the district where it grew, (from a regard for the character of William Penn, and the interest he took in the history connected with the tree,) ordered a guard of British soldiers to protect it from the axe. This circumstance the General related to me, in answer to my inquiries, after his return to England." If we consider the lively interest thus manifested by Sir Benjamin in the tree, connected with the facts that he could have known from his grandfather, who was present and must have left a correct tradition in the family, (thus inducing Sir Benjamin to become the painter of the subject) we cannot but be convinced how amply he corRoborates the locality above stated. We have been thus particular because the archives at Harrisburg, which have been searched, in illustration and confirmation of the said treaty, have hitherto been to little effect; one paper found barely mentions that "after the treaty was held William Penn and the Friends went into the house of Lacey Cock." And Possibly because he could have no picture of it in England, where he painted. +There is a deed from governor Henoyon of New York, of the year 1664, granting auto Peter Cock his tract, then called Shackamaxon. Mr. Gordon, the author of the late History of Pennsylvania, informed me that he could only find at Harrisburg the original envelope relating to the treaty papers; on which was endorsed "Papers relative to the Indian treaty under the great Elm." In regard to the form and manner of the treaty as held, we think William Penn has given us ideas, in addition to West's painting, which we think must one day provide material for a new painting of this interesting national subject. Penn's letters of 1683, to the Free Society of Traders, and to the Earl of Sunderland, both describe an Indian treaty to this effect, to wit: To the Society he says, "I have had occasion to be in council with them upon treaties for land, and to adjust the terms of trade. Their order is thus-the king sits in the middle of an half moon and hath his council, the old and wise on each hand. Behind them or at a little distance sit the younger fry in the same figure. Having consulted and resolved their business, the king ordered one of them to speak to me; he stood up, came to me, and in the name of his king saluted me; then took me by the hand and told me he was ordered by his king to speak to me, and that what he should say was the king's mind," &c. While he spoke not a man of them was observed to whisper or smile. When the purchase was made great promises passed between us of kindness and good neighbourhood, and that we must live in love so long as the sun gave light. This done, another made a speech to the Indians in the name of all the Sachamachers or kings,-first, to tell what was done; next, to charge and command them to love the Christians, and particularly to live in peace with me and my people. At every sentence they shouted, and, in their way, said amen." To the Earl of Sunderland Penn says: "In selling me their land they thus ordered themselves-the old in a half moon upon the ground; the middle-aged in a like figure at a little distance behind them; and the young fry in the same manner behind them. None speak but the aged, they having consulted the rest before hand.' 99 We have thus, it may be perceived, a graphic picture of Penn's treaty, as painted by himself; and, to my mind, the sloping green bank presented a ready amphitheatre for the display of the successive semi-circles of Indians. Fishbourne's MS. Narrative of 1739 says Penn established a friendly correspondence by way of treaty with the Indians at least twice a year. The only mark of distinction used by Penn at the treaty was that of a blue silk net-work sash girt around his waist. This sash is still in existence in England; it was once in possession of Thomas Clarkson, Esq. who bestowed it to his friend as a valuable relic. John Cook, Esq. our townsman, was told this by Clarkson himself in the year 1801,-such a relic should be owned by the Penn Society. |